Related Applications
The present application relates to an electronic control circuit for a laser surgery smoke evacuator system. Two other applications are being filed simultaneously and are assigned to the assignee of the present application: the first relates to the smoke evacuator system as a whole Ser. No. 774,692, filed Sept. 11, 1985 entitled "Smoke Evacuators System For Use In Laser Surgery"; and, the second relates to a filter used with the system Ser. No. 774,690, filed Sept. 11, 1985 entitled "Filter Housing".
Laser surgery is becoming more common as surgical modality with a large variety of uses. When a tissue is subjected to a high energy laser beam the tissue is vaporized. It is desirable to remove the vapor and other by-products from the surgical site in a controlled manner. Smoke is intended to mean by-products of laser surgery which are primarily gases but can include some small amounts of liquid and solid particulate matter. The most common means of removing the vapor and other by-products is to use a suction tube at the surgical site to establish a flow of air which is then delivered to a filter placed in a housing with the motors and pumps that establish the vacuum flow.
Prior art smoke evacuator system, work adequately but are usually cumbersome, noisy and expensive. Many of these prior art systems have electronic circuits to indicate the clogged condition of the filter used with the system and these systems generally rely on determining a pressure differential across the filter or a flow rate through the filter. Such systems are often expensive and inaccurate.
It would be desirable to have an electronic circuit for a smoke evacuation system for laser surgery which would alleviate these problems.